The Executive Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi, has attributed the holdup in the disbursement of National Service allowances to the personnel’s failure to submit required forms on time.
Antwi stated that service personnel are expected to submit their monthly forms by the 15th to 20th of each month, which then must be uploaded by the District Managers by the 20th. Following this, the forms progress through various stages, moving from district offices to regional offices, and finally reaching the accountant and then the Regional Directors.
During a recent address to the personnel before their National Service, Antwi assured them that the NSA is not deliberately causing the delays. He noted that the lengthy multi-step approval process required to process the allowance payments, which involves several offices at both the district and national levels, contributes to the delays.
Antwi explained, “And the Regional Directors have been given a time frame to work on it. When it goes to the head office, it goes through five offices: the usage office, the audit office, the accountant, and finally to the Executive Director. You can see the bureaucracy involved in how these forms are uploaded and worked on.”
He emphasized that the primary reason for the payment delays is the late submission of forms by the service personnel themselves. This lapse creates challenges for the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) under the Bank of Ghana in processing the outstanding allowances.
“So, the problem of delay, we can even say that it comes from most of them not succumbing to, as we have told them to bring their forms on time,” he concluded.
